Long ago, my brother and I were very much into collecting YuGiOh. His favorite cards were the Elemental Heroes, as he was a big fan of the YuGiOh GX anime series. Interestingly enough, the Elemental Heroes have actually aged quite well, as have their counterparts, the Neo-Spacian cards. While Elemental Heroes have gone in and out of the competitive scene (here’s to you Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin!) the cards have actually remained quite relevant in YuGiOh Finance!

YuGiOh Prices is perhaps the greatest YuGiOh Finance resource there currently is. They track the Top 100 Most Expensive Cards that are metagame-relevant. As of February 2019, the top card is Ultimate Rare Cyber Dragon, which is probably not a surprise to anyone. Not only is Cyber Dragon a great deck archetype, but it’s an iconic YuGiOh card - which also happens to be from the YuGiOh GX era.

Despite its many reprints, Cyber Dragon has three printings that have appreciated over time, the original Ultimate Rare printing in Cybernetic Revolution, the secret rare Collectible Tin printing, and the Dark Revelation 4 Ultra Rare printing. In just the past year (feb 18 to Feb 19) both the DR4 Ultra Rare and CRV Ultimate Rare have risen in average price by 140 percent!

But, among the Top 100 Meta-Relevant cards are a number of Elemental Heroes:

Outside of Bubbleman, seeing six Elemental HERO’s in the Top 100 Most Expensive Cards is actually pretty surprising, isn’t it? Well, like Magic the Gathering and Pokemon, YuGiOh is a Trading Card Game with a HUGE casual player base. Beyond being iconic to fans of the YuGiOh GX anime, the Elemental HERO cards, especially the Fusion Monsters, are just nice to look at.

So, let’s take a look at the finance implications of each of these Elemental HERO cards and figure out which printings are the best investments for your YuGiOh binder.

Printed only in Strike of Neos, this Elemental HERO fusion has both ultra rare and ultimate rare printings. While ultimate rare cards are typically far more valuable than their ultra rare counterparts, this is not the case with Air Neos. Whereas the Ultra Rare version is up 123% over the past year, the ultimate rare is only up 98% in the same time. Both versions have an average price around $65, with 1st edition copies going for a bit more. Ultimate rare YuGiOh cards are notoriously condition sensitive, so Near-Mint ultimate rare copies of this card will be more valuable in the long run.

From a playability standpoint, Air Neos does have a good ability. He has a base 2500 ATK, but when your Life Points are lower than your opponent’s, Air Neos gains ATK equal to the difference. That’s pretty bonkers! Unfortunately, he returns to the Extra Deck at the end of the turn. It’s still a VERY powerful ability, nonetheless, so it makes sense that players want this card around to play in their casual HERO decks.

Still, Air Neos is difficult to summon since it requires specific monsters to be Fusion Summoned. Fortuantely, a card from Savage Strike called Neos Fusion allows you to get around not only his summoning restrictions, but also having to shuffle him back into the deck that turn! So, if you can get him onto the field, Air Neos is extremely deadly in the right situation.

Thunder Giant is actually a pretty good fusion monster. He’s easier to summon and doesn’t leave the field like the Neos fusions. Even though he has to be Fusion Summoned, it’s not required to have “Elemental Hero Sparkman” and “Elemental Hero Clayman.” Thunder Giant has 2400 ATK and is a Level 6 monster. He also has a fairly good ability:

“Once per turn: You can discard 1 card to target 1 face-up monster on the field with original ATK less than the ATK of this card; destroy that target.”

So, this is a pretty sweet card for a HERO player. But, there are a lot of printings of this guy - being a popular card from the YuGiOh GX anime. Which is the best? In the case of Thunder Giant, the Dark Revelation 3 Ultra Rare is the most valuable. It has an average price of about $80 and is up 43% in just the last three months. It’s a great investment for the serious HERO collector.

Bubbleman is easily the most competitive of the six HEROs we’re looking at here. He’s seen top deck play as recently as October 2018. Not only is he a Level 4 monster, but he’s the only card in your hand, you can Special Summon him from your hand. If you control no cards and have no cards in your hand when he’s summoned, you can draw 2 cards. That ability is actually pretty relevant, not to mention all of the Fusion monsters Bubbleman facilitates Summoning.

Being a competitively relevant card, even common printings of Elemental Hero Bubbleman have appreciated in price between 2018 and 2019. His original rare printing in Cybernetic Revolution is still relevant, as well - up 47% in a year! His ultimate rare printing hasn’t fared nearly as well, though.

What puts Bubbleman on this Top 100 cards list, though, is his secret rare printing from the Elemental Hero Collection. It’s up 80% in the last year and keeps appreciating.With an average price of $27, they’ll dry up fast when players decide they want a full playset (three copies) of this particular card!

Like Air Neos, Elemental HERO Neos Knight is considerably more valuable in Ultra Rare than in Ultimate Rare! Up 87% year-over-year, Neos Knight has an affordable average price of $13. The ultimate rare averages $11, despite being considerably rarer, and is only up 30% over the past year.

Unlike Air Neos, Neos Knight doesn’t have to return to the Extra Deck at the end of the turn. Here’s what he does:

“This card gains ATK equal to half the ATK of the Warrior-Type Fusion Material Monster used to Fusion Summon this card, other than "Elemental HERO Neos". This card can attack twice during each Battle Phase. If this card attacks or is attacked, your opponent takes no Battle Damage.”

Not only can Neos Knight be an extremely powerful beat-stick, but he can attack TWICE in the same battle phase. The downside is that he inflicts no Battle Damage. But with 2500 original ATK, you’re really just using this guy to clear the path for your other monsters to do the rest of the work. The other downside is you need to fusion summon him, although you don’t require a Elemental Hero Neos (or a Gemini-summoned Neos Alius) to summon him.

Neos Knight has popped up in competitive decks in the past, particularly Qliphorts in mid-2016. But it sees the most play in the online game YuGiOh Duel Links. Still, with Neos Fusion making this guy a lot easier to summon in a pinch, Neos Knight is much more viable than it was before!

“Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 300 ATK for each "Elemental HERO" card in your Graveyard. This card cannot be destroyed by battle.”

Unlike some of the other Elemental HERO cards we’ve mentioned, Phoenix Enforcer’s ultimate rare printing is actually by far his most valuable, followed by his ultra rare printing in the same set. The ultimate rare is up an insane 983% in the last six months to an average price of $58! The ultra rare is “only” up 188% to an average of $14

While Shining Phoenix Enforcer is difficult to summon in a competitive environment, casual HERO players love this guy because he is easily a finisher for the deck. He’s also an important card in the YuGiOh GX anime. There’s a lot to like about this card.

Jaden Yuki’s signature card from the GX anime, Flame Wingman has been a favorite of YuGiOh collectors since the day he was released in The Lost Millenium. But, his original ultra rare printing has actually bottomed out recently. Collectors seem to be favoring two other printings. Interestingly, it’s not Flame Wingman’s rarest printing - the Elemental Hero Collection secret rare that put it on this list - that’s seeing the most action. Rather, it’s the Legendary Collection 2 Mega Pack Secret Rare (up 58% to $9.50) and the Lost Millenium Ultimate Rare (up nearly 100% to $24). For this card to double in a year, with a lot of that movement in the past month, this should be an important target for any Elemental HERO collector.

Like with Pokemon, YuGiOh is a game with a huge casual player base but also a strong collection base. By identifying the printings of each card that are appreciating on a regular basis, you can make smart decisions that will make your YuGiOh card collection a good investment. While YuGiOh Finance hasn’t taken off the way that MTG Finance has, it may get there eventually. So, don’t worry about reprints of your favorite cards, as long as you know the key printings for each popular card.

Any YuGiOh finance questions? Comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them!

Pauper has long been a pet format of many Magic: the Gathering online players, but over the past few years, Pauper has become a widely played format in Paper Magic, as well! Many staples in the Pauper format, despite only being commons, have risen to several dollars a copy. Foil copies of those cards have skyrocketed due to demand, as well. Of course, like any Legacy format, Pauper still has decks that lie around the fringes of the format, ready to break out. In today’s Pauper Finance 101 article, we take at a deck flying under the radar, but already showing signs of player investment: RUG Defenders!

RUG Defenders essentially is a deck based around Defenders, with the win condition essentially being creating enough mana to kill a player in one shot with Kaervek’s Torch or Rolling Thunder. What’s particularly interesting is that this deck is full of cards that see play in other Pauper decks and even other formats, including EDH. Let’s take a look at the decklist, and break down the financial impacts of each key card in this fairly rogue deck.

For finance purposes, this entire deck can be built for a little under $20 (as of 2/17/2019). That includes a playset of the pauper staple Mulldrifter, which accounts for about 25% of that. Also, every version of this deck appears to play four copies of Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement, Stinging Barrier, and Wall of Roots . Every RUG Defenders deck also appears to play two copies of Wall of Tanglecord. These are the cards we’ll focus on first, since they form a major part of the deck’s core.

Axebane Guardian is actually a very powerful common, so powerful that buylists often will pay $0.05 cash a copy. While a 0/3 for 3 mana isn’t exciting, the Guardian has an ability to add X mana to your mana pool in any combination of colors where X is the number of Defenders you control! This creature allows you to ramp a lot of mana quickly, making it a major key to this deck. In addition to this deck, a full playset (four copies) of Axebane Guardian also sees play in another Pauper deck: Defenders Combo.

The Axebane Guardian also sees significant play in EDH / Commander, particularly in Arcades, the Strategist (at one time a super hot deck) and Doran, the Siege Tower Defender decks. So, there is demand from at least two player bases, however niche they may be.

Foil copies of Axebane Guardian once hit $8 a piece, but in Feburary 2019, the price has dropped below $4, with a TCGPlayer Market Price under $3. While many Pauper cards tend to be interesting investment in foil, at the moment, Axebane Guardian is not. We’re looking for a steady rise, not a steady decline, with foil card investments. So, if you want to invest in a playset or two of Axebane Guardian, the nonfoil is actually a lot safer.

Overgrown Battlement was actually a very strong card during its Standard days. It does much the same thing as Axebane Guardian, except that it only produces Green mana. But, it’s a 0/4 for 2 mana, making it a bit more resilient, especially against burn cards like Lightning Bolt - although Flame Slash still takes it down. The Battlement also sees play in the aforementioned Defenders Combo deck. It also sees play in the same EDH decks as Axebane Guardian.

Unlike Axebane Guardian, which only has one printing in Return to Ravnica, Overgrown Battlement gained a second printing in Iconic Masters. In fact, the nonfoil of Overgrown Battlement in Iconic Masters is beginning to outpace the Rise of the Eldrazi card in price. The foil has been holding steady at around a dollar, although they sell for closer to $2 each on eBay. The Rise of the Eldrazi foil is considerably more at a market price of a little over $2. But in 2018, this foil spiked ot over $13.

Which version of Overgrown Battlement is the best buy? Despite the Iconic Masters printing being at uncommon, which makes it slightly rarer as a nonfoil, there are over 50 sellers of the Iconic Masters foil on TCGPlayer. There are fewer than 30 sellers of the Rise of the Eldrazi foil, and some of those are Heavily Played. It won’t take many foil playsets of Overgrown Battlement to cause some serious increase in the price. There is clearly demand for this card, though.

Stinging Barrier is a card that’s unique to the RUG Defenders deck in Pauper. It also sees little to no play in EDH. So, why is a 4-mana 0/4 Defender so good in this deck? Stinging Barrier has a tap ability for a single Blue mana to deal 1 damage to target creature or player. That’s not an insignificant ability in a Defender deck.

What makes this card interesting is that it’s from Mercadian Masques. Thus, there is a foil version that’s actually a bit rare. While there is some interest in the foil at $.50, no one’s exactly tripping over themselves to upgrade their playsets. I wouldn’t invest in this card, although if the RUG Defenders deck starts posting results, the foils could jump very quickly!

Wall of Roots is particularly interesting because it’s a card that’s seen tons of competitive play in the past, especially in Modern Birthing Pod decks. Iconic Masters turned this $1 common into a $0.25 card in a hurry, though. But, Wall of Roots is currently set up for a resurgence in Modern thanks to Prime Speaker “Birthing Pod” Vannifar.

While the Wall of Roots is only a one-of in Modern and doesn’t really see any other competitive Pauper play, foils are a nice financial target. The particularly rare Timeshifted foil is $11+ but the Iconic Masters foil is a mere $1.25, with many copies going for far less. The demand hasn’t really been there, but they are moving up in price on eBay. You don’t have to go deep on this card, and a playset is still pretty cheap on TCGPlayer (as of 2/17/19)

Other Interesting Creatures in the Deck

Mulldrifter is a big staple in many Pauper decks, including Rainbow Tron, Blue-Black Control, and others. It’s been printed too many times in nonfoil to be much more than $1, but it only has three foil printings. The original Lorwyn foil printing is pretty rare, especially in better than lightly-played condition. The Modern Masters and Modern Masters 2015 foils are much more common, but the original Modern Masters foil has remained fairly steady around $3.50 a piece. It’s a card to watch going forward, although it hasn’t been seeing as steady play in Pauper as it has in the past. Mulldrifter is in a ton of EDH decks, though, over 18000+ according to EDHREC. That fact alone makes the foil a decent investment.

Oona’s Gatewarden isn’t a must in this deck, but being a 2/1 flyer with wither makes her at least interesting. Faerie tribal decks have played her in the past and she only has one printing in Shadowmoor. The foil is interesting at $1, although she doesn’t see much other play outside of the odd Oona, Queen of the Fae EDH deck. As of now there are only 8 sellers of the foil, and most are heavily to moderately played. Plus, most of the sellers charge extra shipping. If a good common Faerie gets printed that springs the deck back into regular Pauper play, watch out for this card.

Wall of Tanglecord is an interesting Scars of Mirrodin common that is a 0/6 for only 2 mana. It also has the ability to gain reach for only a single Green mana. It’s been on a steady rise for a couple of years due to the Defender “tribe” gaining popularity, especially because of Arcades, the Strategist in EDH. The foils have a lot of play in the peaks and valleys of their price chart, so I’d say to avoid this card unless that trend starts going up.

Tinder Wall is worth noting only because of the Coldsnap Theme Deck reprint. Originally printed in Ice Age, Tinder Wall is a fun little card that was printed in a Modern border because of those Theme Decks. If people start buying these four at a time, this is a low-population card that could go nuts.

The rest of the deck is full of cards that either see other play in the Pauper format or just aren’t financially relevant at the moment.

What Can We Learn About Pauper Finance from the RUG Defenders Deck?

While some rogue decks never impact Magic Finance all that much, their existence sometimes allows us to peer into the price history of cards we may have otherwise overlooked. Keep in mind that there are enough casual Kitchen Table MTG players out there that are building Defender decks independent of competitive play. Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement, and Wall of Roots are all important cards in a casual Defenders deck. So, there is always some sort of demand for these cards.

Typically, casual players don’t chase foils of commons. That market is typically for collectors and competitive players. The foils in the RUG defenders deck don’t seem to be great investments at the moment, except for perhaps Modern Masters Mulldrifter. But, there is movement with some of these foils, particularly Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement, and Wall of Roots. They are all worth watching.

It’s always important as someone looking to invest in Pauper Finance to recognize cards that are not only seeing positive price movement, but have low supply, and also see play in multiple decks or formats (such as Mulldrifter). Going forward, we’ll look at potential bargains to be found in the top decks of the format, as well.

Seeing how many people are searching “MTG Investment cards” and “best magic the gathering investment” these days, it seemed prudent to write up an article about why Magic the Gathering cards are becoming a very good investment. The trick is to understand what Magic cards are actually good investments. There are several categories of cards in Magic the Gathering that have been regularly appreciating in value. Let’s break them down.

These 5 categories are where you should be putting your Magic the Gathering money. Sure, the newest sets in Standard are fun to speculate on, but as an investment, you’re looking for blue-chip stocks in the form of Magic cards. So, which of these 5 categories is the best Magic card investment? Read on.

Old School Magic

Most Magic the Gathering finance experts will tell you that building Old School Magic sets is perhaps the best investment that you can make. Nostalgia is very powerful and the scarcity of cards (especially in excellent to mint condition) means that they will appreciate over time. Even the least expensive cards in these sets (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark) are still valuable simply because they are sought after by collectors and investors.

Set building has been a thing in sports cards for a very long time. It’s become a very good investment in other trading card games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, as well. It’s also important to note that besides the very popular niche format, Old School Magic, that uses cards exclusively from these seven sets (plus Revised), many of the cards from these sets still see play in widely played competitive Magic format today! (Blood Moon from the Dark is a great example.)

Why not invest in Revised Edition and Chronicles Magic Cards?

Revised Edition cards are a very much stripped down version of Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited that don’t include the “Power Nine” (Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, the Moxen, Timetwister, and Time Walk). They are not nearly as scarce, much as the white-bordered Chronicles reprint set is - which reprinted cards from Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends - so they typically make poor investments. That being said, there are cards from Revised and Chronicles that still see competitive play. They include:

From Revised:

Underground Sea

Volcanic Island

Tundra

Bayou

Tropical Island

Badlands

Scrubland

Taiga

Savannah

Plateau

Wheel of Fortune

Demonic Tutor

Mana Vault

Birds of Paradise

Sol Ring

From Chronicles

Concordant Crossroads

Blood Moon

City of Brass

Ashnod’s Altar

Nicol Bolas

Urza’s Mine

Urza’s Power Plant

Urza’s Tower

The majority of these cards are heavily played in Commander. Blood Moon and the Urza “tron” lands are extremely popular in Modern. Birds of Paradise and City of Brass also see occasional play in Modern. So, these are cards that are perfectly fine to hold if you can’t afford the rarer versions, because they are still sought after for their playability.

What About Collector’s Edition and International Edition Cards?

Because Collector’s Edition and International Edition cards aren’t allowed in competitive play, I don’t particularly care for them. However, from a pure collection and investment standpoint, CE and IE cards have been seeing major returns for those who’ve invested in them. Owning a Black Lotus for $550 in IE or $1200 in CE isn’t a bad proposition. It took a long time for Wizards to see the realization of the investability in these sets, but it happened. If you want to collect cards that are iconic and always on the rise, and you want to ride the momentum, go right ahead. But, because they aren’t playable, I’m personally not a fan.

Investing in Reserved List Magic Cards

Because Reserved List cards are intentionally meant to be scarce, Magic card collectors and investors have doubled down on purchasing them in recent years. The problem is, many of these cards aren’t really that playable. For many of the playable cards on the Reserved List, including the ten dual lands from Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, and Revised, this has meant bloated prices. While there are some that are probably still yet to realize their true value, Reserved List cards are fairly “unsafe” investments at this point, unless you get solid deals on the dual lands I just mentioned or other playable cards from early in Magic the Gathering’s history. An entire investment guide to Magic’s Reserved List could be written, so we won’t go fully in depth here.

That being said, the value of some older sets such as Fallen Empires, Homelands, and Ice Age lie in the Reserved List cards. That’s because for those collectors who are struggling to buy into the first big Vintage sets, these sets are attractive to build. Why not? Ice Age, in particular, has lots of good playable cards. Fallen Empires and Homelands are notoriously weak sets, but people are still building them, believe it or not.

Investing in Modern Playable Magic Cards

Modern has become one of the most popular competitive Magic formats. It’s fairly diverse as far as what decks are playable and the card pool is giant and ever expanding. The main issue with investing in Modern is the likelihood of occasional reprints that tank the value of existing cards. With Masters sets being released on a regular basis, why invest in Modern Magic cards?

Modern Magic cards begin with 8th edition, which was the first set to introduce the overall card design we see today. Many Magic purists still prefer the vintage card design, but there is plenty of value in some of the earlier Modern sets. What’s important to realize, though, is because the print runs of these sets are much higher than some vintage Magic sets, there is one particular area to focus on: premium foils.

When foil Magic cards were first released, many players didn’t like them. They tend to scratch and show wear easily. But, as Wizards of the Coast intended, some players and collectors embraced them. Because there are a fraction of foil cards available and pretty much every card in Modern was printed in foil at some point, the demand often far outweighs the supply, meaning there are some ridiculous multipliers on cards that only see modest competitive play, or even no competitive play at all!

Because of the threat of reprints, investing in Modern is a lot trickier and requires you to keep a close eye on the card market. How much a card is seeing play is a major factor. Reprints can absolutely tank a card. However, certain foil printings tend to retain far more value due to scarcity and sometimes the artwork. (Yes, artwork matters!)

Modern also has some cards that are sometimes referred to as “stock splits.” Like in the stock market, a reprint of a Magic card causes that card’s stock to effectively split. Some cards, such as Eternal Witness, Lightning Bolt, and Blood Moon take hits to their prices but almost immediately rebound. That’s because when the price lowers, more people buy in to add those cards to binders and decks. The top 50 cards in Modern are a great place to look for actively traded cards that can bounce back in value from reprints. Playing the peaks and valleys of the Modern Magic card market can actually be very profitable, but it’s not for the faint of heart because of the possibility of mass amounts of reprints at once.

The Commonly Played Cards in Modern list on MTG Goldfish is a great idea to check on a regular basis in order to see what cards are being played on a regular basis. We can go further in depth in investing in Modern in a future guide.

Why Invest in Top Played Magic Cards in EDH / Commander?

Thanks to the great folks at EDHREC, the Magic community has a clear idea of what the Top 100 played cards in Commander / EDH are at any given time. These cards, especially in foil, can be great investments. But, like with Modern, you have to watch the price trends of these cards - buy low and sell high. Many of them continuously trend upwards, though, as Commander players typically don’t break down their decks nearly as often as Modern players. That means supply slowly, but surely, often doesn’t mean supply - causing significant price appreciation.

It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on what’s being played in 1v1 Commander. It’s a far more competitive format that has a significantly different metagame than multiplayer Commander. Again, though, 1v1 Commander players tend to stick with their decks and only change them when upgrades are available. But, because Commander cards typically only move one copy at a time, you have to be patient and watch for continuous upward movement in price, as cards in the format can bottom out for a long time.

Why Should I Invest in Pauper Format Competitively Played Cards?

Pauper has long been a fun, cheap format to play on Magic the Gathering Online. But recently, as Local Game Stores began holding more Pauper tournaments to attract MTG players on a budget, Wizards of the Coast decided to offer more support as a competitive format in paper Magic. This has been incredible for the market for cards played in Pauper. While investing in commons seems odd, the demand for certain commons has caused some $0.25 cards to rise as high as $5 or more!

While you certainly don’t want to invest in the cards that are already realizing their market value, just like with any competitive format, cards go in and out of favor in competition. Also, even though Pauper is quickly growing, the supply of many of these commons is massive. It’s best to put your money into foil copies. That’s because Pauper is a Legacy format, meaning people tend to stick with their decks for a long time. But, unlike in Commander, people often buy cards four copies at a time, meaning if a card gets hot, a card can break out! For those that bought in early, the profits were huge, but there are still gains to be realized. Even with new releases, if a card starts to see heavy play in Pauper, it’s worth investing in, especially if it sees competitive play in other formats, too.

Should I Buy Graded Magic Cards?

Many Magic the Gathering Old School set collectors have been sending their old school cards that they don’t plan to play with to the trading card grading giants PSA and Beckett (BGS). With sports cards, Pokemon cards, and Yu-GI-Oh cards, having high-grade, investment-quality cards with a PSA 9 or 10, or a BGS 9, 9.5, or 10 means a lot for their resale value. However, while some graded Magic cards have appreciated well, many others have not. Why is this?

The fact is, most Magic the Gathering players hate graded Magic cards. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first and foremost reason is that many Magic players still want to play with their cards. On many occasions, Magic players will find a bargain on graded Magic cards and crack open the cases, essentially “setting the card free.”

Another major reason Magic collectors are shying away from graded Magic cards is that PSA and BGS have been known to authentic FAKE Magic cards. Besides the straight-out counterfeits, though, there’s another process called “rebacking” that takes a low-grade vintage Magic card and essentially presses it onto another worthless Magic card. Through this combination, you can essentially create a much higher-grade Magic card.

The outrage from the vintage Magic community has led to many PSA graded and BGS graded Magic cards to be bought en masse only to be cracked open. While many are genuine, there have been enough “rebacked” and counterfeit cards that have fooled the graders. What should be a process to verify a card’s authenticity, especially in a market full of proxies and fakes, hasn’t been foolproof. Hopefully, the graders are taught much stricter guidelines in the future. This is why Magic the Gathering, the first major trading card game, hasn’t caught up to Pokemon and even Yu-Gi-Oh in the graded trading card market, especially with the older, more valuable cards.

Are Other Modern Magic Cards Worth Investing In?

Many people cite the gimmicky secret rare subsets in recent memory as great investments - particularly the Zendikar Expeditions, Kaladesh Inventions, and Amonkhet Invocations. While I don’t disagree, as they are fairly scarce and many are appealing collectibles, my favorite subset in recent memory are the Ultimate Masters Box Toppers.

Not only are most of these cards with tremendous playability, but they are extremely rare beautiful cards of iconic cards in Magic’s history. Who doesn’t want an extended art version of Karn Liberated, Liliana of the Veil, or Tarmogoyf? Even Lavaclaw Reaches has a market! Plus, because they are playable, the value of these cards is going to keep appreciating. These are probably my favorite gimmicky cards Wizards has ever printed! (Plus. Ultimate Masters is a crazy good set.)

There’s also the occasional foil cards that aren’t seeing any competitive play at all that seem to have incredible prices relative to their nonfoil counterparts. This demand comes from what the Magic card industry calls the ‘invisibles’ or what I like to call the “Kitchen Table MTG” community. The casual market is always bigger than the competitive market, and while casual players typically want many of the same cards as the competitive players, there are occasionally cards that are actually great cards to play with, but don’t necessarily end up seeing play competitively. There are many of these to consider, and those require an in-depth analysis for each example. The Kitchen Table Magic market could have a book written about it, so it’s far beyond the depth of this article.

My money in Magic is basically on the seven Vintage sets and Modern, Pauper, and Commander playable foils. In particular I like cards that see play in two or all three of those formats (plus Legacy and Vintage if possible). I avoid Standard like the plague, although there are very good cards in some Standard formats that make an easy transition to Modern value-wise, but hey are few and far between.

In this Magic card investment guide, we’ve barely scratched the surface of Magic the Gathering investment. If you have any questions about what’s good or not good to invest in, feel free to comment below. If you have insights on good Magic card investments, feel free to share them!

Also, remember, as with any investment, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING IN MAGIC CARDS!

Ultimate Masters is probably the most valuable reprint set ever printed for Magic: the Gathering. In addition to reprinting classic cards that are often seen in competitive play, Ultimate Masters also featured a set of box toppers, which are quite valuable. So, when asking what is the most expensive card in Ultimate Masters, there are three things to consider: the most expensive non-foil, the most expensive foil, and the most expensive box topper.

What is the Most Expensive Non-Foil Card in Ultimate Masters?

In late January 2019, Liliana of the Veil was the most expensive non-foil card in Ultimate Masters. As a card that sees plenty of play in the Modern format, it should come as little surprise that this mythic rare was commanding a price tag of around $70 USD. The powerful three-mana planeswalker was followed by other powerful Modern cards: Cavern of Souls, Karn Liberated, Snapcaster Mage, Tarmogoyf, and Noble Hierarch.

What is the Most Expensive Foil Card in Ultimate Masters?

The Ultimate Masters set is full of pricey foils, despite one foil coming in every pack. The most expensive foil card in the Ultimate Masters set is Liliana of the Veil, which has sold on eBay for between $125 and $150 as of January 2019. Liliana is followed by Karn Liberated, Demonic Tutor, Snapcaster Mage, and Karn Liberated all in the $125 range. On TCGPlayer, you can find these foils for a bit less money.

What is the Most Expensive Box Topper Card in Ultimate Masters?

The Ultimate Masters Box Toppers are highly collectible, highly sought-after extended art versions of many of the best cards in the set. The most expensive Box Topper that’s sold on eBay by the end of January 2019 was a Dark Depths graded by Beckett as a Gem Mint BGS 9.5. It sold for $1275 on January 3rd, 2019. A BGS 9.5 Tarmogoyf and BGS 9.5 Liliana of the Veil each sold for $660 each a short time later.

Ultimate Masters is a great set, and even if you can’t get ahold of any of the Box Toppers, this set is one of the best to collect cards from if you’re looking to build a valuable Magic the Gathering collection.

In 2019, the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh card was the Shonen Jump 2013 Prize Card, Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City. This is a card that cannot even be used in a Duel, due to the fact that it could win you the match if it attacks directly. In January 2019,a copy was for listed for sale at $18,999.99 USD on eBay.

What Does Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City Do?

Grandopolis is a Rank 8 XYZ monster that needs 3 Level 8 monsters to summon. It has 2800 ATK and 3500 DEF. He must be Special Summoned by Xyz Summon and no other way. If Grandopolis attacks your opponent directly and reduces his or her life to 0, if one of the original Xyz Materials was a Machine-type monster, you win the Match. While this is somewhat difficult to actually pull off, because it can win the match, like Victory Dragon and other similar Shonen Jump Championship prize cards, it can never be used in an official Duel.

There’s a replica of Grandopolis, The Eternal Golden City out there that was released in 2014. One replica copy was graded by Beckett Grading Services as a Gem Mint 9.5 and sold for an undisclosed best offer on eBay. There was another Grandopolis replica listed on eBay in January 2019 for $1200. If you absolutely want to own a Grandpolis, the Japanese version is available for $10 - $15 on eBay.

What’s the Next Most Expensive Yu-Gi-Oh Card?

The runner up for the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh card is another Shonen Jump Championship Prize Card. This is the 2017 Shonen Jump Championship prize card, a Link monster called Iron Knight of Revolution. Like Grandopolis, it also cannot be used in a Duel.

There are many other expensive Yu-Gi-Oh cards out there, but reportedly a one-of-a-kind Black Luster Soldier printed on stainless steel is the #1 most expensive card in the game’s history. It was the prize given to the winner of the first-ever Yu-Gi-Oh tournament ever held in Japan back in 1999. According to Gemr.com, in 2016, the stainless steel Black Luster Card was valued at around $10 million and reportedly sold at one point for $2 million!

One of the “boons” cycle that gave you 3 of something for a single Mana, Healing Salve is clearly the worst of the five. Of course, when you're up against Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, and even Giant Growth, that's pretty hard to beat. Gaining 3 life isn't horrible, of course. Also, preventing up to three damage to a target is useful, too.

Healing Salve allows you to save a creature from targeted damage such as Lightning Bolt or combat damage. But compared to those other four boons, it's a pretty mediocre card, since it's so situational. Still, while we look at it today as a pretty weak card, it wasn’t all that bad in the beginning. It’s also still such an iconic, classic card that it’s been reprinted numerous times, including in Duel Decks: Divine VS Demonic.

Despite being one of the more worthless cards in the original Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets today, Beta copies of Healing Salve sell for over $5 US and Alpha copies push $10. Despite being relatively weak even by early Magic standards, it was still playable back in the earlier days, and is still a collectible in black border.

When graded by PSA or BGS, Healing Salve is actually somewhat valuable. An Alpha copy in BGS 9 or higher condition can fetch over $30. On a side note, the rare “Summer Magic” variants of the Fourth Edition set includes Healing Salve, and a BGS 9 copy was receiving bids in excess of $70.

“(Insert name of uncommon legend creature here) is good” could easily be a theme in the Dominaria set. But, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is actually quite good. Even as an uncommon, Adeliz quickly found herself on buylists for bulk rare price or even slightly higher. She also has had a positive demand curve.

Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is a blue/red Wizard that screams Wizard tribal. A 2/2 with flying and haste is always good for three mana. Also, her ability to pump all Wizards you control whenever you can an instant or sorcery spell - even herself - works on either offense or defense.

Unsurprisingly, Adeliz has proven good enough to be part of Standard Wizards Aggro at three copies. Even as a Legendary Creature that you can only control one copy of at a time, Adeliz pumps your whole team, so having extra copies in hand isn’t really a problem. You’ll want extra copies of her to drop in case they deal with your first Adeliz.

Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is even good enough that she’s appeared in Modern Izzet Wizards at two copies. There are enough one drop spells that can quickly activate her ability, such as Lightning Bolt and Serum Visions. Even in a fast format like Modern, she makes Wizards a viable aggro deck She’s even popped up in an occasional Vintage Grixis Control deck as a quick source of hasty damage in the air.

With how expansive Wizards are as a tribe in Magic, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Adeliz, the Cinder Wind is also good in EDH. While Adeliz, the Cinder Wind Commander decks aren’t all that popular just yet, they gained some powerful allies in Guilds of Ravnica with Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Murmuring Mystic. She’s definitely one to watch as a Wizard Tribal Commander.

Really, Adeliz is way too good a creature to be uncommon. She's a solid card for any Magic collection, but also a great card for the Magic card investor binder. Foil copies of Adeliz floored at about $2, so if you happen across them, they’re worth grabbing. The non foil doesn’t have a super high ceiling, but he’s 60-card Constructed playable. Adeliz is really fun to build around and a home run card for Magic players both new and old.

Quasiduplicate is a sorcery spell from Magic the Gathering’s Guilds of Ravnica set. This three-mana spell not only can clone one of your creatures, but it also has Jump-start. A mechanic new to Guilds of Ravnica, Jump-start allows you to cast a spell from the graveyard by paying its mana cost plus discarding a card.

Because of its Jump-start ability, Quasiduplicate is very similar to an older instant spell from Innistrad called Cackling Counterpart. That card was better in that you could play it at instant speed and was still a three-mana spell. It also had flashback for 5UU (seven mana). While it never saw much competitive Standard play, Cackling Counterpart did find its way into a few Delver decks.

What makes Quasiduplicate better than Cackling Counterpart is that it essentially can use flashback for only three mana. You do have to discard a card, but it could be a card you don’t even need, like an extra land. Seven mana was just too much for a commitment for a clone in Standard or other competitive formats. In this way, Quasiduplicate is better, although it can only be cast at sorcery speed.

What is the best deck for Quasiduplicate in Standard?

Dimir Quasiduplicate is a deck that has gone undefeated in Guilds of Ravnica standard on Magic Online. It features four copies of Quasiduplicate, plus three of the other best clone in Standard with Hostage Taker. Your primary targets for your Quasiduplicate and Hostage Takers are Ravenous Chupacabra, Doom Whisperer, and Dream Eater.

The Chupacabra helps you clear your opponent’s board, and being able to copy that ability for three mana is really solid. Copying Doom Whisperer gets you a 6/6 trampling flyer for three mana. Dream Eater lets you surveil 4, while also bouncing an opponent’s nonland permanent, and the copy does, too. Getting to throw dead cards from your top 4 in the graveyard and rearrange the order of the rest on top of your deck is already good - doing that plus bouncing something for three mana is absurd.

Quasiduplicate has also been tried out in Izzet Drakes, in order to copy one of your Enigma Drake or Crackling Drake. It’s a decent concept - copying your Crackling Drake draws you a card as well asa powerful attacker. Hlwever, this is a case where Quasiduplicate being an instant would make it a lot more releveant in that deck. It’s a bit superfluous in that deck.

Is Quasiduplicate an Infinite Combo With Beamsplitter Mage?

Many Magic the Gathering players speculated that Quasiduplicate might be a great spell to play alongside with Beampslitter Mage. While the Mage can copy spells, it does not go inifinite with Quasiduplicate. That’s because even if you copy the Beamsplitter Mage, its ability to copy a spell only works on spells being cast, not being copied. Still, can certainly work in the same deck. Still, while a competitive deck utilizing those two at its core is still to be built, but there are some brewing possibilities with Beamsplitter Mage and Quasiduplicate in the same deck.

While Quasiduplicate can’t go infinite with Beamsplitter Mage, it’s a plenty useful spell. There are plenty of creatures with strong enter the battlefield effects that can benefit you with Quasiduplicate making a token copy. While it hasn’t yet found its way into Modern, it’s not impossible to see it making some sort of impact in the right deck.

Also, while Quasiduplicate certainly isn’t a chase card from Guilds of Ravnica, it is a card to watch. It’s been a top selling card from the set before and Quasiduplicate is not a card to overlook even with its low price.

Foil is what you may call a “poor man’s” Force of Will. Originally printed in Magic the Gathering’s Prophecy set, Foil has been played in EDH for quite some time. It was reprinted with the same artwork with a modern border in Duel Decks: Elspeth VS Tezzeret - to this day probably my favorite of the Duel Decks and not just because of Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Foil also was selected for reprint in Ultimate Masters in 2018. Not only did it gain new artwork and the chance to get a far less expensive copy of Foil in foil (that’s fun to say), but Foil also gets a rarity downshift. Always printed at uncommon before, Foil has been shifted to common rarity for Ultimate Masters.

Why is Foil at Common a Big Deal? Foil in Pauper

Rarity downshifts are common in Masters reprint sets. But Foil, in particular, is a card that’s primed to impact the Pauper format, a format that uses only cards printed at common. Originally a massively popular format on Magic the Gathering: Online, Pauper is now extremely popular and well supported by local game stores in Paper Magic.

What makes Foil so good? If you look at Foil, it doesn’t really look like a tremendously competitive card. It’s a four mana Counterspell essentially. In Pauper, you already have good old Counterspell, which is only two mana. But, Foil has an alternate casting cost. You don’t have to pay any mana if you discard an Island and another card from your hand.

This alternate casting cost makes Foil very similar to the Legacy staple, Force of Will. That counterspell costs five mana, but if you exile a Blue card from your hand and pay 2 life, you can cast it for free. While that’s definitely a minus one as far as card advantage is concerned, you’re typically going to be countering something significant when you cast it.

While Foil is essentially a minus two in card advantage if you cast it for free, four mana to counter a spell isn’t really that terrible, especially in the later game. Also, pitching an Island and any card from your hand is nowhere as bad as exiling a card that has to be Blue (an Island doesn’t count in that case). Because the cards go to the graveyard, they can be brought back somehow later.

Is Foil Going to See Competitive Pauper Play?

While there are many counterspells in Pauper, having essentially a common version of Force of Will is better than it looks on paper. Also keep in mind that cards with the Madness mechanic, which gives cards an alternate casting cost when they’re discarded, is present in Pauper.

But, you don’t need to have a deck that revolves around Madness for Foil to be good. Here’s an Izzet Blitz Pauper deck that features two copies of Foil.

The entire point of an Izzet Blitz Pauper deck is to build up your Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops to deal massive amounts of damage. Foil helps get you there by giving you a “free” counterspell. While discarding an Island and another card can be a steep cost, it’s not a steep cost if you’re going to win the game because of what you counter.

In a deck like this one, you don’t care if you’re discarding a card for Foil. You want Striper Riverwinder or Gurmag Angler in the graveyard anyway to Exhume. Foil is actually a better card in this particular kind of deck than Force of Will, since you’d have to put one of your Striper Riverwinders or other Blue cards in exile instead of in the grave. You can also discard Gurmag Angler, too, or anything else for that matter.

Foil in EDH / Commander

While not exactly a staple in the EDH format, Foil is a useful counterspell that sees a fair amount of play in several Commander decks. Talrand, Sky Summoner, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, and Baral, Chief of Compliance are far and away the most common Commanders that utilize Foil as part of their countermagic suite. You will have plenty of Islands to pitch in these sorts of decks.

While Foil had a price over $1 before its reprinting, that was mainly due to its relative rarity being printed in an older set. Duel Deck copies aren’t all that plentiful. But, being reprinted at common makes it far more accessible, although the overall demand from the Pauper community will likely keep this one of the more valuable commons in Ultimate Masters. Also, you won’t have to pay $30 for a foil copy of Foil anymore, which is a plus.

Once one of the most popular decks in Yu-Gi-Oh, Destiny Heroes returned to modern Yu-Gi-Oh in 2018 with theLegendary Hero Decks. Because it was included in the decks, it was decided to return Destiny Hero - Disk Commander from the Banned and Restricted List to Unlimited status. This means you can now play three copies of one of the most powerful Destiny Hero cards of all time in your deck… But, wait, there’s an errata?

That’s right. There was no way that a monster that could draw you two cards every time it returns from the graveyard to the battlefield could be brought back into play without some serious limitation on its effect. So, Konami continues their rather frustrating trend of nerfing old cards just to make them legitimate cards that can be played in tournament decks without severely warping the competitive game.

The “new” Destiny Hero - Disk Commander after errata is extremely different than the original version. This little Level 1 Warrior monster originally read like this:

“When this card is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, draw 2 cards.”

Wow, that sounds pretty busted… It was. There’s a reason why Destiny Hero decks dominated Yu-GI-Oh for a long time. That is some nuts card advantage. So, how can they make it fair enough for it to return from the banned list?

Here is the Disk Commander Errata:

“Cannot be Special Summoned from the GY the turn this card was sent to the GY. If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can draw 2 cards. You can only use this effect of "Destiny HERO - Disk Commander" once per Duel.”

Wow, that’s a lot of deck. Let’s break this down.

Cannot be Special Summoned from the GY the turn this card was sent to the GY.

OK, this bit is understandable. This makes the effect a bit more fair, right? You can draw 2 cards if you Monster Reborn this guy, but you can’t do it until next turn, OK?

If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can draw 2 cards.

That sounds awfully familiar. So, if that’s all, that’s not too bad of an errata. Let’s all run three copies of Disk Commander!

Oh, wait, there’s more…

You can only use this effect of “Destiny HERO - DIsk Commander” once per Duel.

Ick. You mean we can only draw two cards ONCE? Hmm… well, that makes playing three copies rather pointless, doesn’t it?

You can see why this errata was made. It’s a double-whammy, but there are many reasons why this is necessary. First of all, it’s easier to Special Summon monsters from the GY more often than ever. Drawing two cards is still obviously quite good, and being a Level 1, there are plenty of reasons to want to play this card just as material to summon a Synchro, XYZ, or Link monster. But if its effect is only good once per turn, is it still worth playing?

I say yes. If you are playing a dedicated Destiny Hero deck, it’s totally worth playing one copy of Disk Commander, pitching it to Destiny Draw to draw two cards. Then, there are a myriad of ways to take advantage of him being there and Special Summoning him. Also, Elemental Hero Stratos was returned to one copy per deck in September of 2018, so he’s an obvious monster to choose with Stratos’ ability.

Destiny Hero - Disk Commander is still worth playing even with this double-edged errata craziness. There is pretty much zero reason to play more than one copy in my opinion. I hate the errata, but I understand the reasoning for adding both of those restrictions on his effect.

Swiftblade Vindicator is a two-mana Human Soldier from Magic the Gathering’s Guilds of Ravnica set. The Vindicator is a mere 1/1 creature, but also has Double Strike, Vigilance, and Trample. Double Strike and Vigilance makes this a pretty useful card on both offense and defense. But, you may ask yourself, why would you have trample on a 1/1 creature?

In the Guilds of Ravnica set, the Boros guild (the Red/White guild of Ravnica) has a mechanic called Mentor. Whenever a creature with Mentor attacks, it puts a +1/+1 counter on an attacking creature with lesser power than the creature with Mentor.

Tajic, Legion’s Edge is a perfect example of a creature with this ability. Tajic alone can boost a Swiftblade Vindicator twice, since he has 3 power. Being a 3-mana creature, Tajic and Swiftblade Vindicator are perfect companions in an aggro deck.

It’s not surprising that in pre-orders Swiftblade Vindicator and Tajic, Legion’s Edge were among the top cards players wanted to get their hands on early from Guilds of Ravnica. Swiftblade Vindicator is a powerful little creature.

While you probably won’t see the Vindicator do much damage in the popular Human decks in Modern, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Vindicator sneaks into the format, especially with Tajic, Legion’s Edge around to prevent non-combat damage to other creatures you control.

Foucault’s Cannon is a Normal Pendulum Monster from the Duelist Alliance expansion set for the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. This is a Level 5, DARK-attribute Spellcaster-type monster, meaning it also requires a Tribute to be Normal Summoned. While 2200 ATK isn't great for a Level 5 Monster, it's at least respectable. It was one of the first of a few Pendulum Normal Monsters released, along withFlash Knight and Dragon Horn Hunter.

It's also a Normal monster that has a Pendulum effect, something that had never been seen before! During the End phase that this card is played in a Pendulum zone, you can target one face-up Spell/Trap Card on the field and destroy it. This, of course, includes other Pendulum Monsters. When this card was released, there were also tons of relevant face-up Spell and Trap cards in play in the metagame. Overall, this is a fairly good effect.

With Spellcasters a fairly viable archetype all of their own, it seemed this monster might have some potential. But, as more of the ARC-V sets were released, it quickly became outclasses. Still, in a vacuum, this isn't a bad monster at all. Spell & Trap destruction is certainly very splash-able and Pendulum Normal Monsters certainly would get better and better. Foucault’s Cannon also has a Pendulum Scale of 2, making it a great lower-end scale in a Pendulum-heavy deck.

Due to seeing basically zero competitive play, it’s a very inexpensive super rare card. Still, it's worth looking at for its place in the early history of Pendulum monsters. It's certainly not the worst monster out there.

The first of the Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V expansion sets, Duelist Alliance, introduced a brand new card type to the card game: Pendulum Monsters. After players were introduced to the Pendulum Summoning mechanic with the Space Time Showdown Super Starter Deck, we got to see the mechanic in full force in the Duelist Alliance set. Here we’ll take a look at the Sneak Peek Participation Promo, Dragon Horn Hunter. It would turn out to actually be a decent monster!

What’s particularly interesting about Dragon Horn Hunter is the fact that he’s a normal Monster, a Level 6 DARK-Attribute Warrior with 2300 ATK and 1000 DEF. These stats are nothing special. However, as a Pendulum Monster, when he lives in one of your two Pendulum Zones he has a Pendulum Scale of 3 and gains this effect: “All Normal Monsters gain 200 ATK. You take no battle damage from battles involving Normal Monsters you control.” That’s a very good effect.

Dragon Horn Hunter really pushes you to play Normal Monsters. As it turns out, there’s an easy way to search out this card: Summoner’s Art from Tactical Evolution. Also, being a DARK-type monster is good, as it can provide the necessary DARK component for many other cards. It also means that playing classic Normal Monsters such as Summoned Skull - also a potential target for Summoner’s Art - becomes far more plausible.

The greatest con to this card is obviously the fact that he relies quite heavily on the Pendulum mechanic. You’re going to need to push out high-level Normal Monsters to simply overpower your opponent if this guy is going to make much of a difference. The ATK boost he gives isn’t much, but taking no battle damage from battles involving your Normal Monsters could make a Normal Monster based Pendulum Summoning deck a realistic option.

As it turned out, Pendulum decks with Normal Pendulum Monsters would turn out to be competitive. As we saw with the Space Time Showdown Starter Deck, Normal Monsters were being pushed with the advent of the Pendulum Summoning mechanic. In 2016, this card was good enough to appear in some competitive Pendulum Magicians decks at a single copy.

While it didn’t stay relevant in competitive play for long, as it would become outclassed with future sets, there were a couple of lists that took full advantage of this creature’s power. Overall, Dragon Horn Hunter was a good role player for a time in some builds of Pendulum Magicians, a deck that would go on to evolve into one of the better deck archetypes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! For a Sneak Peek promo, that was a pretty good time in the spotlight.

The Magic 2014 Core Set is definitely an enchantment-happy set. Of the many interesting Enchantments, Path of Bravery is definitely a good card. It would later be reprinted in Iconic Masters. As long as you have more life than you started with (or even the same number you started with, in fact), all of your creatures gain +1/+1. Then, whenever your creatures attack, you gain life equal to the number of creatures that you have attacking. It can be one or a thousand. In any case, this life-gain can be quite substantial

The starting life total bit is clearly intended to make it not break Commander - where you start at 40 life in a multi-player setting) In Constructed, White Weenie was needing a card like Path of Bravery for awhile. The first half of this card already makes this card a variant of Honor of the Pure, but one that doesn’t restrict itself to white creatures. But the second half of this card is what makes it so powerful. Having lots of little creatures consistently gaining you life not only keeps you in the game, but it makes it pretty much impossible for burn decks to race you.

The best part of Path of Bravery is that it costs 2 colorless and a White mana. This means that it’s easy to splash in green-white, red-white, or blue-white creature-based decks. With Soulmender and Fiendslayer Paladin already a part of Magic 2014, plus creatures with Extort from Gatecrash, life-gain was suddenly looking like a valid mechanic again!

Despite this being a darn good card, it saw fairly limited play in Standard. You’d find three copies of Path of Bravery in the occasional White Weenie deck. It was also a pretty strong card in Limited, especially at Grand Prix Prague 2013. The deck that Path of Bravery most shined in was Martyr Life in Modern, a variant of Martyr Proc. Like the older Soul Sisters decks before it, it relied on Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, and Spectral Procession to flood the board with a bunch of creatures. It was called Martyr Life due to playing Martyr of Sands, which could gain you a ton of life, plus the one copy of Path of Bravery in the main deck and one copy of Chalice of Life in the sideboard This was actually a fairly successful deck from 2013 well into 2014.

Since late 2014, Path of Bravery pretty much disappeared from competitive play, but not from play entirely. It still sees a fair amount of play in Commander across a wide variety of decks, including Darien, King of Kjeldor, Karlov of the Ghost Council, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, and other decks with either a weenie creature or lifegain theme. While Path of Bravery isn’t quite as good in Commander due to having to stay over 40 life, it’s still a solid Enchantment.

Could Path of Bravery re-emerge in Modern someday? It’s certainly possible. As a card that did have its day in the competitive spotlight, you never know.

While Flash Knight may simply be a rare card from Yu-Gi-Oh’s Duelist Alliance expansion set, this Pendulum Monster would prove himself to be rather useful. He’s a Level 4 Light-Attribute Normal Monster with 1800 ATK and 600 DEF, easily search-able with Reinforcement of the Army. The most important part about the Flash Knight is the fact that he has a Pendulum Scale of 7. Combined with a creature like Dragon Horn Hunter in your opposite Pendulum Zone, you then have the ability to summon Level 4 to Level 6 monsters with ease at the beginning of each of your turns.

Was Flash Knight going to be a good option for a deck based around Pendulum Summoning high-level Normal Monsters? While the range is a bit limited, topping out at Level 6 as previously mentioned, there are plenty of strong Normal Monsters that fall in between those levels. In fact, the Knight did see some competitive play, including some Regional Top 8Draco Performapals decks like this one.

For only a mere rare, the Flash Knight actually proved himself to be a fairly useful monster. He was useful enough just as a scale, and having 1800 ATK isn't too shabby, either! As one of the first ever Pendulum monsters, the Knight held his own for awhile before being outclassed by flashier, badder Pendulum monsters. But let us never forget the exploits of this brave Level 4 Knight!

Newer gamers are likely familiar with the Castle Wolfenstein games, but the legend began way back in 1992 with Wolfenstein 3D! The adventures of B.J. Blazkowicz infiltrating Nazi strongholds and taking down their bosses became such a huge hit that the game spawned console ports as well as a sequel in Spear of Destiny!

I probably shouldn’t have been playing this game as a kid, but it was fun! After all, this game has a MATURE rating for a reason, with all the blood and whatnot - pixelated as it may be. Still, for a game as old as it is, it’s actually held up really well!

Pros of Wolfenstein 3D

I’m one of those 100% gamers who try to do absolutely everything. And this game is great for that! In addition to tons of secret rooms that you can find by pushing walls, there’s also a secret level for each of the six episodes! Really, you can play this game for years and never find everything. The level design is that deep!

Over the years, there have even been mods made for Wolfenstein 3D that allow for endless extra hours of gameplay, testing the limits of the original game engine! So, the replayability of this game is pretty crazy high!

Also, you get to be the “good guy” and help take down some pretty evil baddies!

Cons of Wolfenstein 3D?

Are there any? Perhaps the biggest knock you could have against the game is that the entirety of the game’s six episodes can technically be completed within half an hour if you know what you’re doing.

Observe this speed-run:

Of course, this particular speed run is actually a bunch of separate segments and not really a “true” speed-run. But it shows you how a lot of the floors can be beat within 15-30 seconds if you know how to take advantage of guys walking through otherwise locked doors, etc. But I don’t think this is a bad thing. Obviously, you have to run through the levels umpteen times to get this good at it.And yeah, it’s really dated. But for a game that’s over 25 years old, what can you really expect?It’s pretty hard to come across a copy of this game that you can buy these days. So I won’t be linking to any, but you can certainly find it online if you really want to play it! Of course, there are tons of people on YouTube that have played it, so if you want the full experience, there’s this 100% walkthrough by Big Mac Davis!

What awesome classic games did you play as a kid? Whether they be on PC or any console, I’d love to hear about them?

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was one of my favorite PC games growing up! It was a top-down vertical-scroller shooter by Apogee Software & Cygnus Studios from 1994 that I probably wasted far too many hours playing, but oh man, it was fun! It’s similar to another classic game called Major Stryker, but for whatever reason Raptor has really lived on. Heck, there are streamers who even STILL PLAY IT LIVE ON STREAM!

This longplay on stream by cs188creations is super awesome. It’s 2 and a half hours long, so don’t feel pressured to watch the whole thing. But, you can get the whole experience by watching it. And he played it on max difficulty WITHOUT SAVING! Yeah, he died a couple of times, but that’s what you get from going hardcore!

Like a lot of older games there were some cheats that made the game easier, like skipping levels and a “god mode.” But I always preferred to play the old fashioned way. I pretty much only played on MAX difficulty - Elite - but I always saved after every wave!Pros of RaptorThe soundtrack of this game was so good that I’d find myself humming tracks from it all of the time! There’s even a playlist or two of the Raptor: Call of the Shadows OST on YouTube! Despite there only being three sectors with nine waves each, the game has surprising amounts of replay value. There are also some cool easter eggs that I forget how to get at now.

The selection of weapons and equipment is also pretty expansive for such an old game, although there are a few that are clearly better than others, like the Auto-Track Minigun and the Twin Lasers. The graphics were superb at the time and it was critically liked.

Really, Raptor’s a great game to play when you just want something straightforward where you blow stuff up!

Cons of Raptor

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything I dislike about Raptor Call of the Shadows. I will say that there’s a Windows version from 1999 that had some serious control issues. But since then there’s been a version released on Steam which is fine and an iOS version of the game, as well.

The only other knock I’d really have against the game is that it’s not packed with quite as many levels as other similar games. But the quality of its 27 levels makes up for whatever replayability value it loses from having such a small number of stages.

Overall, it’s really fun to watch other people play Raptor that have such a nostalgic fondness for it like myself! If you’re looking for a classic game to fire up, this is definitely one that’s worth a couple hours of time for the serious retro PC gamer!

Burning Anger(no relation to the Glyph of Burning Anger from World of Warcraft) is an Enchant Creature card - more popularly known as an Aura - from the Magic 2015 Core Set. Unlike many of the Auras from the Theros block, however, Burning Anger wasn't really a viable option for the popular Heroic deck archetype.

This Enchantment costs 4 and a Red mana to cast. Auras with a Converted Mana Cost of five need to be something special. They do exist, but is this one? To be honest, Burning Anger does give the Enchanted creature a decent effect: it gains the ability to deal damage equal to its power to target creature or player. The fact that it's creature or player is definitely important. Put on a 7-power creature card likePhytotitan, that's a pretty powerful card.

Unfortunately, this card is a bit mana-intensive to fit into the mana curve of most decks that would play Auras. It was useful in Limited, sure, if big creatures are already in the game-plan. It's going to be a fringe card even in the Aura-happy Commander environment, as it's in the wrong colors for the most popular Aura-friendly Commanders:Bruna, Light of Alabaster,Krond the Dawn-Clad,Zur the Enchanter, etc.) However, some other Commanders that make the use of auras, such asUril the Miststalker, and evenKresh the Bloodbraided andZurgo Helmsmasher, have made limited use of this five-mana Aura.

Burning Anger has a good design, and it's probably properly costed. But, it's just another bulk Core Set rare when all is said and done.

As someone who started playing Magic the Gathering during the Lorwyn set block, I was very familiar with the Kithkin Soldier Preeminent Captainwhen he was reprinted in the Magic 2015 Core Set. Kithkins were a competitive tribal deck back in those days. I've always been a huge fan of Soldiers, in general. After all, my favorite planeswalker isElspeth, Knight-Errant.

Today, Preeminent Captain only really sees play in Commander decks which revolve around a Soldier Tribal theme. Despite a lack of competitive play, before the reprint, he was still a pretty valuable card from Morningtide. The reason for this lies in the power of his ability.

Preeminent Captain is a 2/2 Kithkin Soldier that costs 2W to cast. Not only does he have First Strike, but whenever he declares an attack, you may put a Soldier creature card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. This could even be an additional Preeminent Captain, although you won't get the ability from the second Captain until he next declares an attack himself. Still, this is an extremely powerful free summon. On a three mana creature, that's pretty absurd value.

Let's see what a Top 8 Standard deck from 2008 with Preeminent Captain looked like:

Obviously, this White Weenie Kithkin deck runs a lot of Soldier creatures, the only exceptions being Knight of Meadowgrain and Wizened Cenn in the mainboard. Kithkin decks often ran two copies, if not three, of Preeminent Captain to speed up the assault of an already pretty effective aggro deck. While he was a complementary piece, he allowed the deck to have some very explosive turns, especially when you got two or even all three on the battlefield at once.

So, considering he was pretty good in this and pretty much every kitchen table deck that was focused on Soldiers, how would he fare in the future?

Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch

While they were never in Standard together, Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch have been linked ever since the latter Soldier was printed in the Magic 2010 Core Set. She'd be printed again in the Magic 2013 Core Set and also in the Duel Decks: Elspeth vs Kiora. Even though they rarely saw competitive play together, they have obvious synergy that has made them fine pals.

Captain of the Watch is a whopping six mana to cast (4WW) but her abilities are worth the cost. She's only a 3/3 herself, but this Human Soldier gives all other soldiers you control +1/+1 and vigilance. Vigilance means that your Soldier creatures don't have to tap when they attack, meaning they can stay open to block or tap for abilities. She also brings three 1/1 Soldier tokens into play when she enters the battlefield.

While Preeminent Captain's ability brings the Captain of the Watch into play tapped and attacking, this is OK. We're bringing in a six-mana creature into play for FREE after all, along with her tokens and a +1/+1 boost to Preeminent Captain and any other soldiers you control. The vigilance won't be a factor until the next combat, but that's OK. Cheating Captain of the Watch into play is enough reason to run her, after all.

Even though Captain of the Watch barely saw any Standard play, she DID see Legacy play. Albeit, it was limited, but as you can see from this 2014 Magic Online Legacy Daily list, she did so with her partner in crime, Preeminent Captain!

Only Aven Mindcensor was not a Soldier in this deck, and you weren't going to want to put Mindcensor into play tapped and attacking anyway. This deck takes Preeminent Captain to the best of his ability, giving you lots of card advantage. Enlistment Officer comes into play searching up another Soldier. Daru Warchief pumps your Soldiers and makes them cheaper to cast. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben slows down your opponent's non-creature spells. And even in Legacy, putting a six-mana Soldier into play along with three tokens is just extremely powerful, not to mention those tokens are 2/2 with just the Captain of the Watch on board.

While this deck is pretty great on paper, it never really took off into major tournaments. It was a well-built deck, though, and it really displays the true power of the combo between Preeminent Captain and Captain of the Watch.

Preeminent Captain in Magic 2015 Standard

With his reprint in Magic 2015, Preeminent Captain came into a Standard environment where it seemed he should play a role. There were a ton of playable Soldiers in Standard right then. Granted some of the best Soldiers available at that time, Precinct Captain and Loxodon Smiter, were soon rotating out of Standard. Still, Theros block is chock full of them, especially those with Heroic. As it would turn out, Heroic decks would still be good for awhile.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos was the best Soldier in Standard, by far. Along with him, there were a bevy of other playable White Soldiers which included: Akroan Skyguard, Archetype of Courage, Boros Elite, Favored Hoplite, Hero of Iroas, Soldier of the Pantheon, and Vanguard of Brimaz. If you wanted to go Red/White, there were also Akroan Crusader, Akroan Hoplite, and Battlewise Hoplite as solid Heroic Soldiers.

Also, for a short time before his Standard rotation, Spark Trooper was be a nice little 6/1 surprise with trample and lifelink to throw into play. Yeah, he's a soldier! There were also a couple of interesting Legendary Creatures, Anax and Cymede and Daxos of Meletis, who also appeared to be Soldiers that would benefit from having Preeminent Captain around.

White Weenie and Boros Aggro decks were already pretty good, and having a tool like Preeminent Captain to accelerate the board state seemed like it could push these decks even further up the competitive ladder., With all of the pump spells available in Standard to keep your Captains alive, you were going to potentially get a few free creature summons out of this guy.

Pro player Melissa DeTora offered up a couple of pretty solid decklists that featured Preeminent Captain on TCGPlayer back in 2014. There was a Red/White Heroic list and a Red/White Aggro list which is featured below.

Oh, yeah, Dryad Militant is a Soldier, too. This is a great list. Unfortunately, while Red/White Aggro decks, both Heroic and not, enjoyed competitive success, they left Preeminent captain behind. Why is that?

There are a couple of fairly easy explanations. The Standard rotation did knock out a lot of great Soldiers from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash. Even then, though, there were still plenty of Soldiers left for Preeminent Captain to throw into play. But, were any of them worth it? Unlike in the old days, there wasn't a tribal deck like Kithkins that Preeminent Captain could accelerate with explosive plays.

The best thing that Preeminent Captain could put into play after the rotation of Spark Trooper was Brimaz, King of Oreskos. One of the best parts of Brimaz is that he brings a 1/1 token with vigilance with him when he attacks. Since he comes into play without declaring an attack off of Preeminent Captain, he was basically a 3/4 vanilla when he first entered play. Sure, it's worth putting him into play, but without the token, he becomes considerably less valuable.

Also, because he didn't really benefit Heroic decks, most players didn't see a benefit to including him. Boros Aggro was definitely a deck, too, but people decided they'd rather play a double strike creature like Fabled Hero in the three-drop slot rather than Preeminent Captain who, while a fine creature, didn't really fit into that Standard environment. He proved to just be a bit too slow and his payoff just wasn't enough.

It's too bad, because Preeminent Captain is a great card that needed a reprint for quite a long time. Of course, people played him Standard, but not with great success. He simply didn't find a chance to play a competitive role.

But with the Modern format becoming a thing, would he find his way into a deck into the relatively new Modern metagame?

Preeminent Captain in Modern

The short answer when it comes to Preeminent Captain in Modern is no. Preeminent Captain doesn't see competitive play in Modern. At least, not yet.

Soldiers are a tribe that continue to get support set after set. Knights are the better tribe in Modern, though, since they have the powerful Knight Exemplar as a Lord. Soldiers don't really have anything like that. But, a Soldier deck in Modern is certainly playable, if not super competitive.

In Modern, Preeminent Captain has powerful allies in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Brimaz, King of Orekos, and even Precinct Captain (who creates a token when he deals combat damage to a player, so he works well with Preeminent Captain.) Of course, you have the old standby of Captain of the Watch. Even in the fairly quick Modern format, if you manage to declare an attack with Preeminent Captain putting Captain of the Watch into play, that's pretty tough to answer.

The reason a deck that centers around abusing Preeminent Captain is so difficult to build in Modern is that Lightning Bolt and Anger of the Gods are around. He simply won't last long enough to really do a lot. Captain of the Watch has a similar problem, being a 3/3, and she had to deal with Lightning Bolt when it was in Standard with her in Magic 2010. The only way that you can make this deck work is to have lots of +1/+1 buffs. It's doable, certainly, but Field Marshal certainly isn't enough and the other best Soldier lords aren't Modern-playable.

If there's a really good Soldier Lord printed in the future, then yes, a deck with Preeminent Captain could at least be a fun deck that could win at some local Modern tournaments.

Overall, Preeminent Captain is a primarily casual card. In that capacity, he's plenty good. He serves a role in Commander decks like Darien, King of Kjeldor and Odric, Master Tactician, who play a lot of Soldiers that Preeminent Captain can accelerate into play. He's a pretty good creature who can do some fairly unfair things if the right creature is printed. He'll need to have a better play than Captain of the Watch to make it in today's Magic, but for what he is, Preeminent Captain is a darn good Soldier who's already enjoyed his day in the sun.

Will he rise again? Only time, and the printing of more cards, will tell.

In Magic the Gathering's 2015 Core Set, the Convoke mechanic first introduced during Ravnica block was alive and well. Spells with Convoke allow you to tap creatures in order to pay the mana cost of that spell. The cool thing about Convoke is that you could actually tap creatures for colored mana if that creature was the same color as the spell.Endless Obedienceis one such spell from Magic 2015 with Convoke.

Endless Obedience is an uncommon Sorcery that costs 4BB to cast and it puts target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. However, because it has Convoke, you can pay 1 less for each creature you tap. It could actually become a free reanimation spell if you had six creatures to tap, including at least two black creatures. Free Reanimator spells are pretty good, and there really aren't any. Plus, Endless Obedience has beautiful artwork featuring the popular planeswalker Liliana Vess. It's a pretty decent uncommon all around.

Being that it could be cast for a greatly reduced cost, it wasn't surprising that it did see some Standard play. While it was never part of a dominant deck, there were a few decks that managed to get Top 8 finishes during Theros/Khans of Tarkir Standard It also found a home in a few Commander decks such as Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Liliana, Heretical Healer. However, with so many reanimation spells available in Commander, it hasn't really seen play in that format

Endless Obedience in Standard

Endless Obedience did see some Standard play, but it only had a handful of appearances in top decks. The highest profile deck that ran Endless Obedience was anAbzan Midrange deck that featured Satyr Wayfinder and Commune with the Gods to dump creatures in the graveyard. The deck could reanimate things like Ashen Rider, Siege Rhino, and Hornet Queen from the grave. Hornet Queen and her tokens also could help cast Endless Obedience. There were two copies of Obedience in the deck. It made for a 3rd place finish in the 2014 Nebraska State Championships. Someone ran a similar deck to aTop 8 finish on Magic Online with only one copy of Endless Obedience.

My favorite deck that ran Endless Obedience in Standard, though, wasa somewhat unique version of Sultai Whip, a deck based around Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Whip of Erebos. It topped a Daily event on Magic Online back in October 2014.

While Endless Obedience is much too resource intensive for Eternal formats like Modern, it's a pretty cool card nonetheless. It's really never going to be worth much, but it's still a fun card to have in your collection.

Whenever you see a common on TCGPlayer best-seller lists, you want to pay attention.Larger Than Life from Kaladesh has been a best-seller in late June 2018. It’s not incredibly surprising to see people want to pick up their playsets of this card. It’s seen play in some Modern infect lists and Green/Black Pummeler lists in Standard. But why the sudden interest?

This is a common that could make an impact in Pauper, and I’m not sure why it hasn’t. Two mana for +4/+4 at instant speed isn’t bad, but the trample is huge. Pauper Infect can be a thing, after all. There’s also Mono-Green Stompy, one of the oldest deck archetypes in Magic. You don’t have access to the premier pump spells like Blossoming Defense, Might of Old Krosa, and Mutagenic Growth in Pauper.

Larger Than Life is a decent pump spell that had a spike in interest. While it hasn’t shown up in any other top lists besides those mentioned, it certainly could pop up in some future Pauper lists in addition to things like Rancor, Hunger of the Howlpack, and Vines of Vastwood. Whether it will ever be more than a one or two of in lists like those, though, remains to be seen.

Of the two Innistrad Event Decks, Hold the Line clearly has more bang for your buck than its green/black counterpart, Deathfed. While Deathfed has some fine rares to add to your collection, Hold the Line is a more playable deck right out of the box. Plus, it has more cards that have held up in value over time.

Let’s take a look at how playable Hold the Line is and just how much it’s worth today.

Champion of the Parish, Elite Inquisitor, and a pair of Mirran Crusaders were worth a good chunk of the value in this deck. The Champion gets a +1/+1 counter each time you have a Human enter the battlefield under your control. It’s the best card in the deck. Being that this is an all Human deck, he’s very powerful.

Elite Inquisitor’s value hasn’t held up, but they were about $1.50 at the time because they were efficient 2/2 creatures with first strike and vigilance. They also have protection from Vampires, Zombies, and Werewolves - all important creature types at the time.

Mirran Crusader is the other really good creature in this deck. Not only is he a 2/2 with double strike for three mana, but he has protection from black and green. Most removal couldn’t touch him, and neither could a lot of creatures at the time.

Their support troops are also quite solid, especially a full play set of Fiend Hunter. The Fiend Hunter was great in dealing with problem creatures, and was a staple of a lot of decks at that time. Doomed Traveler is a great value creature, because when he dies, you get a flying 1/1 spirit. Elite Vanguard is a vanilla 2/1, but he’s only one mana.

Gideon’s Lawkeeper helps you tap down opponent’s creatures, which is very handy. Accorder Paladin is a cute 3/1 with battle cry, which gives your other creatures +1/+0 when he attacks. We think of Signal Pest and Hero of Bladehold for this ability, but Accorder Paladin has it, too. Not bad for a 2-mana creature.

Non-Creature Spell Breakdown

Silver-Inlaid Dagger and Butcher’s Cleaver are solid Innistrad equipments. There are two of each in the deck. The Dagger gives +2/+0, but it gives an additional +1/+0 if the equipped creature is a human. It’s only 1 mana to cast and the equip cost is 2, so it’s well-costed. The funny thing is that you’d most likely want to stick this on the flying tokens left over from Doomed Traveler, but it’s pretty effective on a Human.

Butcher’s Cleaver costs 3 to cast and 3 to equip, which is fairly hefty. It does give the equipped creature +3/+0, and if it’s a Human, it also grants lifelink. While that’s pretty good, that’s 6 mana to invest. I’m not really a fan of this equipment in this deck. It’s properly costed, but it’s just a bit too mana-intensive to be worth it most of the time.

Bonds of Faith, on the other hand, is a pretty cool Aura. For 2 mana, it gives the enchanted creature +2/+2 if it’s a Human. If it’s not, then that creature can’t attack or block. Basically, it’s a pump spell that could alternatively be a Pacifism. It’s actually a sweet little card. It saw sideboard play in Naya Humans.

Honor of the Pure is a must in any mono-white deck. Two copies isn’t bad, although adding a third could be helpful. A playset of Oblivion Ring allows you to answer most serious threats that will be posed against this deck. At the time, Titans were quite popular, so you needed an answer for the 6/6 Giants.

This is a very good sideboard. Every card in here is pretty self-explanatory. Nevermore is still a great card in Eternal formats. Back then, you would name top cards like “Liliana of the Veil” or “Koth of the Hammer” or perhaps even “Birthing Pod.”

Deck Strategy

Depending on how competitive your local environment was, this was a pretty solid deck that with minor adjustments could perform well at a local tournament, especially a Friday Night Magic event. That’s what these Event Decks were designed to do. This mono-white deck that focuses on swarming the board and deals with threats pretty well. Deathfed’s problem is that it was too focused on filling the graveyard to power up certain creatures. This deck is just a lot more versatile.

To make this a truly playable deck in tournaments, you’d want to get 3 more Champion of the Parish and 2 more Mirran Crusaders. You’d cut the Elite Inquisitor and the Gideon’s Lawkeepers. While Lawkeeper isn’t a bad creature, really, you want to be aggressive, and those guys are a lot more aggressive.

Is it Worth Buying the Hold the Line Event Deck Today?

Like the Deathfed deck, the Hold the Line deck has a lot of cards that still see play even in 2018. However, the value between the two decks is actually pretty similar. Still, you can find this deck for as little as $25. What’s worth something in here?

Champion of the Parish is $5, due to strong Modern playability. Mirran Crusaders are worth $4 a piece, so that’s another $8. Honor of the Pure is a $2+ card, and there’s two in here. But after that, you really only have Nevermore at $1 and a bunch of decent spare parts. This was a better deck as far as resale value back in the day, certainly.

You’d want to get this deck closer to $20 to make your money back. However, the difference with Hold the Line is that this is a more playable deck out of the box. So, for that reason alone, it would be worth picking up for the $25.

Battle Faderis a monster that’s been around since the days of Absolute Powerforce. It was a monster that was still being played a great deal when I was still playing competitive Yu-Gi-Oh. Since then, Battle Fader has been reprinted a great many times, including in ultra rare and secret rare! Even with so many reprints, the foil versions of Battle Fader are still sought after enough to keep their price from falling too low.

While Battle Fader hasn’t seen consistent competitive play since 2016, it does see the occasional play in Domain Monarch and even Cubic decks. Of course, it still sees play in local tournaments, as well, as a card that can play many different roles.

How does Battle Fader work?

Here’s what Battle Fader does, using the latest errata:

When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then end the Battle Phase. If Summoned this way, banish it when it leaves the field.

Not only does Battle Fader negate the attack, but it ends the battle phase altogether. It also doesn’t target, so it gets around monsters that can’t be targeted with abilities or effects of cards. Unfortunately, if it leaves the battlefield in any way after being summoned this way, such as effects that would return to hand, it gets banished. This is to prevent players from simply recycling Battle Fader to continuously negate attack after attack.

However, one of the coolest things you can do with Battle Fader is to play a deck that plays Imperial Iron Wall. This continuous trap card prevents cards from being removed from play. This means that it will instead go to your graveyard or your hand, meaning you can reuse it. Iron Wall was pretty popular when this card was first released, and actually still sees play in True Draco decks in 2018.

Can Battle Fader be negated?

Let’s cover some common spells and traps that could interact with Battle Fader. One common question is how Book of Moon works against Battle Fader. Really, it doesn’t, because Battle Fader’s ability to negate the attack and end the battle phase resolves before it’s actually face-up on the field. So, Book of Moon doesn’t negate Battle Fader, only puts it face down. The same is true for Forbidden Chalice.

It’s also important to note that Skill Drain, which is an extremely popular way to shut down effect monsters, can’t stop Battle Fader’s ability. Other trap cards that miss the timing to stop Battle Fader include Breakthrough Skill and Solemn Judgment. However, Solemn Warning, which negates the Summon entirely, can prevent Battle Fader’s ability to end the Battle Phase.

Besides Solemn Warning, the best ways to stop Battle Fader are Majesty Fiend and Vanity’s Emptiness. Majesty’s Fiend stops effects no matter where they are, so Battle Fader can’t be Special Summoned from the hand at all. Vanity’s Emptiness negates any Special Summons, but as of this writing, it’s forbidden in tournament play. So, in official tournaments, Solemn Warning and Majesty’s Fiend are really the best ways to stop Battle Fader.

Which is Better? Battle Fader VS Swift Scarecrow

Swift Scarecrow is a nice little hand trap monster that gives you the same effect as Battle Fader. However, since Battle Fader is a level 1 monster that you can Special Summon and use as material or tribute fodder to Summon a better monster, Battle Fader is going to typically be the superior card.

Other Similar Cards toBattle Fader If you’re looking for a Battle Fader alternativebesides Swift Scarecrow, there are a couple of other monsters that do something similar.

There’s Speedroid Menko, which lets you Special Summon it in Attack Position when an opponent declares an attack. While it doesn’t negate the attack or end the battle phase, it does put all of your opponent’s monsters in Defense Position… except for Link Monsters, of course… So, against Links it’s pretty bad, because it’s only 100 ATK. Still it’s a cool card and it’s Level 4 and 2000 DEF.

Construction Train Signal Red can be Special Summoned by his effect when an opponent’s monster attacks. But, if you do, you change the attack target to this card and proceed to damage calculation. While he can’t be destroyed by that battle, you can still take damage. However, he can be Special Summoned in Defense Position, and he has 1000 ATK and 1400 DEF. Also, he’s a Level 3 Earth monster. So, there are some cool things you can do with him.

If you want to just stop attacks, there are the Kuriboh monsters! There’s Kuriphoton that lets you take no damage if you send it from the hand to the Graveyard, if you pay 2000 LP to do so. Of course, there’s also the old school Kuriboh cards that can negate attacks or prevent battle damage… Kuriboh only lets you not take battle damage. Winged Kuriboh lets you take no battle damage the turn that he’s sent from the field to the graveyard. But none of these guys get you a Special Summon, although there is The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh! Also, there’s the Link Monster Linkuriboh (which can actually use Battle Fader as material.)

Battle Fader has seen competitive play since 2010, way back to Shonen Jump Championship Edison in Gravekeeper Burn and Quickdraw Dandywarrior. In both those decks it helped set up Synchro plays. It saw play in Frog Monarchs as Tribute fodder. Over the years, it’s seen play in Chain Burn, Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers, Hieratic Dragons, Mythic Rulers, and a wide variety of other Monarch decks, plus others. It’s just a really versatile card.

In this week’s episode of Magic Card Investor, we look at a card that’s very different from the first four we’ve considered. We’ve covered a control deck finisher, a Modern combo deck staple, a casual card that’s quite good in Pauper and Commander, and a Core Set 2019 card that may be greatly undervalued in the early going. All are still solid investments.

But now, we look at a card that’s actually bottomed out. If you’ve been playing Magic the Gathering for awhile, you may be surprised at the card.

So, here’s an interesting graph of Mutavault from MTGStocks. I really like that they added TCGPlayer Market Price to their stock charts because it gives you a better feel of what people are actually doing with a particular card. The reason I show you this graph is to illustrate what it looks like when a card’s market bottoms out.

But we’re talking about it because it’s simply not going to go lower. I mean, it’s freaking Mutavault.

So, when I looked on Monday, its market price was $9.40. That’s compared to a TCGPlayer Mid price of $12. The mid price is usually what a lot of people use when valuing a card, but people are shifting towards market price for a good reason. It reflects the actual sales of a card.

What’s more interesting is at the time of this writing, you can get lightly played foils of Mutavault for $12! For a card that sees as much Modern play as this guy does, you won’t care if it’s in near-mint condition if you’re looking to play with it.

What’s so great about Mutavault? Well, it’s a generically good nonbasic land. Not only does it tap for colorless mana, but for a single mana you can turn it into a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. This makes Mutavault particularly awesome in Tribal decks, especially Elves, Faeries, Merfolk, and Spirits. A lot of tribal decks still play as many as four copies of the “man-land.”

Originally printed in Morningtide, this was once an extremely expensive card. The reprinting in Magic 2014 greatly diminished this card’s value, although full art Champ Promos are still among the most expensive cards in Magic ($600!). But lately, even with more tribal support being released in Dominaria and Magic 2019, Mutavault has actually been on a downward slide.What’s going on here?

Well, a big reason for the card’s sudden slide is a Grand Prix foil promo that has the same artwork. It’s selling for between $10-12. Because of that, the nonfoil printings are taking a hit. Why buy a nonfoil M14 copy when you can just buy a foil promo copy that looks just as good as a foil M14 one?

Also, cards fall in and out of favor with players. Mutavault is a card that’s always up and down. As you can see from the chart, the market price and mid price often meet, then diverge, then meet again, then diverge. Recently, the divergence has been striking, and that’s because people just aren’t buying them for over $10. That’s especially true when the Grand Prix promo foil is selling around that price, too.

This is why it’s important to actually watch a card’s market price trend, which is far more accurate than seeing what people list cards for and hope to get. It’s much like watching eBay completed listings, but a lot easier to track.

Speaking of eBay… there’s lots of listings for $12 that simply aren’t selling or are taking best offers. That’s for both the Grand Prix foil AND the M14 version. The Morningtide version, long the more expensive printing, is sharing a similar fate.

So, what should you do? I’d be picking up the Grand Prix foils at the lowest price that you can. With the M14 foils selling for little more than $20, there’s no reason not to get the cheaper premium version. Also, if you happen upon nonfoils under $10 and M14 foils around $12 you should jump on them.

All it would take for Mutavault to hit $20 again is a deck with a Top 8 Modern finish with 4 copies in the main. This card was $35 or more at its M14 Standard peak. And if you watch the long term chart, this is a card that sees lots of ebbs and flows as sets with lots of tribal support get released. Commander drives a bit of the sales, as well as just casual sales, which are always going to be higher than competitive sales. Most players want four of these if they plan on playing most tribal strategies.

Also, Grand Prix promos tend to recover pretty well. Look at Stoneforge Mystic who hit a low of about $15 before being $35 market price today. Primeval Titan got as low as $10 before recovering to around $20. Batterskull recovered from a low of $13 to $25. Other cards haven’t been quite as lucky after getting the Grand Prix Promo treatment, like Griselbrand.. Also, this one has the same artwork as the original card. Still, being a card you really want four-of, like the Mystic and Titan, getting back to $20 isn’t out of the question.

In any case, it’s great to see such a versatile and competitively relevant card available for such a low price. It’s really not hard to see Mutavault doubling in price in the near future, but it’s also a card to take some caution with. But unlike a lot of the other Grand Prix promos like Mystic, Prime Time, and Griselbrand, Mutavault isn’t a card that anyone is thinking about banning in any format. So, it’s a pretty safe bet to pick these up as you see them in the $10 range and hold them long-term.

Any other cards you see bottoming out and being great long-term holds? Let us know in the comments!

Life's Legacy is a potentially very powerful Green draw spell from the Magic 2015 Core Set. At first, Life's Legacy looks like a Sorcery version of an older card calledGreater Good, without the drawback of discarding three cards. But as Greater Good is an Enchantment, very popular in Commander, this is a two-mana Sorcery.

Yes, this is an extremely powerful effect. Being able to sacrifice a creature and draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, especially in Green, is a super nifty effect. With Greater Good, you could sacrifice a creature at any time for no cost and draw cards equal to the creature's power. However, you then had to discard three cards, which is a substantial cost. But for a 4-drop enchantment (2GG) that could be used multiple times at instant speed, it's very good.

The problem with having an effect like Life's Legacy at Sorcery speed and having to sacrifice a creature as a cost to cast it, you can set yourself up for a two-for-one if it gets countered. However, if you do successfully cast this and get the effect out of it, 1G to draw three, four, or even more cards is extremely good. Even at the cost of a creature, that's definitely card advantage.

This card would've been extremely good in Standard had the very popularThragtusk still been hanging around. Imagine playing Thragtusk for 4G, gaining 5 life, then paying 1G for Life's Legacy, drawing 5 cards and getting a 3/3 beast to replace it. Seven mana for all that value seems well worth it. Alas, that never happened, although it still could in Commander…

Life's Legacy is also similar to a card calledMomentous Fall, an instant from Rise of the Eldrazi. That card also required you to sacrifice a creature, but it drew you cards in the same way and also gained you life equal to that creature's toughness. So, Life's Legacy is basically half of a Momentous Fall at Sorcery speed. But, being half the mana cost at only 2 mana, it can net you some serious advantage.

Were Life's Legacy at Instant speed like Momentous Fall, this card would be super powerful. As it is, it's a pretty cool effect. Card draw in Green is rare and precious.

Life's Legacy in Standard

There seemed to be room for Life's Legacy in the Standard metagame at the time. Several potential targets were identified early on by speculators. One popular potential target for Life's Legacy was Phytotitan, a 7/2 creature from Magic 2015 that actually comes back at the end of the turn tapped. That guy never really saw much play, unfortunately, although it was a pretty cool idea. It was also speculated that Reanimator decks at the time would sacrifice big creatures likeShadowborn Demon after using their effects to draw some cards, then bring them back later. The Demon did see some play, but Life's Legacy didn't see play in these kinds of decks.

Life's Legacy did make some competitive appearances, however. There were some Selesnya Aggro decks like this one that ran two copies of the Sorcery. These kinds of decks would use Collected Company to summon value creatures like Reverent Hunter, which could get pretty big based on your devotion to Green (how many Green mana symbols you had on permanents you controlled). Life's Legacy was a decent draw spell that could help reload your hand. It was useful tech.

Another deck that would make use of Life's Legacy was Devotion to Green, and oneGreen Devotion deck ran a single copy of the sorcery. It was nice tech to sacrifice a monstrous Polukranos, World Eater, a Soul of New Phyrexia, or huge Genesis Hydra. This was back when you had Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to generate a ton of Green mana, so you could summon these guys well ahead of the curve. Being able to create massive card advantage by cashing in a big creature and drawing a ton of cards was a nice tool to have.

While it was a decent card in those decks, it wasn't absolutely necessary to run. Still, it's hard to overlook how could this card could be in refilling your hand. A big creature is great, but in Magic, and most card games, drawing cards is usually better.

While it's a good card, it just wasn't a consistent enough draw engine to see much competitive play. The good news for Life's Legacy, though, is that it did have another format for players to use.

Life's Legacy in EDH / Commander

It was clear from the get-go that plenty of Commander decks will be able to utilize Life's Legacy quite effectively. While it hasn't become a staple in any one deck, there are plenty of Commander decks that will run a copy. The most popular choice has been Omnath, Locus of Rage, in which you can sacrifice a sizeable Elemental to draw some cards and deal 3 damage to something with Omnath's ability.

Another Commander that makes use of Life's Legacy is Yasova Dragonclaw. Essentially Act of Treason on a creature, you can steal a creature, attack with it, then sacrifice it for some cards. Life's Legacy sees play in roughly half of Yasova decks, so while it's not a staple, it's a part of the strategy for many who run her as their Commander.

Xenagos, God of Revels has a lot of big creatures, and creatures that double in size with "Xena-God's" combat ability. When your hand is depleted, Life's Legacy is a nice way to get in a sizeable attack, then draw a ton of cards.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a Commander who already draws a lot of cards for everyone at the table. So, why not use Life's Legacy to draw even more cards and stay ahead of the rest of the table? It's an idea many Selvala players have had, in fact.

Other Commanders that make use of Life's Legacy on a semi-regular basis include Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Titania, Protector of Argoth, and more.

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